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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27337549">Pale shadows</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter'>TFALokiwriter</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Lost in Space (1998)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Poetic</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-07 00:02:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,138</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27337549</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/TFALokiwriter/pseuds/TFALokiwriter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>They're like shadows, truly. Shadows that mock and insult.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Pale shadows</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There are dark realities of the Robinson expedition,</p><p>Made out of:</p><p>ignorance,</p><p>denial,</p><p>lies,</p><p>and secrets.</p><p> </p><p>They talk, they walk, they act, </p><p>like hollowed dysfunctional versions of themselves, </p><p>only two of them remain as who they are not what they are,</p><p>serving their purpose:</p><p>Deflect,</p><p>protection,</p><p>preservation.</p><p> </p><p>They walk in the dark,</p><p>forcing one of the only members,</p><p>what they are becoming not who that they are</p><p>to run away. </p><p> </p><p>These specific passages of the shadow's worlds,</p><p>all of these are bitter words,</p><p>best be shined on by the sun.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(none exist in the shadows world)</em>
</p><p>and removed, </p><p>
  <em>(and proved)</em>
</p><p>forgotten, </p><p>
  <em>(For it rotten)</em>
</p><p>rid of,</p><p>
  <em>(with a glove)</em>
</p><p>and wiped off with a cloth</p><p>
  <em>(after having a nice, wholesome, cheerful broth)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>These far passages</p><p>- of Smith running away--</p><p>are ages that don't happen often,</p><p>in the worlds of the dark shadows,</p><p>
  <em>(no, they do happen; softly.)</em>
</p><p>with it being the deepest lows.</p><p> </p><p>The shadows are in dark clothes,</p><p>mourning for a dying planet,</p><p>a dying civilization that had lost all;</p><p>hope, innocence, kindness, and attention span.</p><p> </p><p>They pale in comparison, </p><p>Trying to pretend to be what they are not,</p><p>to the source of what they are coming from, </p><p>It is as if someone has forgotten what these shadows are supposed to be mimicking.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(the other two shadows are interesting as they retain their character)</em>
</p><p>
  <em>(perhaps a third, in showing one tendency that the source did; leave shelter when told not to)</em>
</p><p>
  <em>(but built out of fine different cloth, different figures, all of which come from different people)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>This very unique shadow world,</p><p>the dark reality,</p><p>the anti-matter world,</p><p>is different from the original in some notable aspects,</p><p>the grill isn't green, the helmet doesn't glow blue, nor is the figure in black and white.</p><p> </p><p>It spawns countless realities,</p><p>built of triumph,</p><p>loss,</p><p>mistakes,</p><p>trauma,</p><p>betrayal,</p><p>figures going different directions.</p><p> </p><p>Robot,</p><p>in each and every one of them,</p><p>acts as a linch pin regarding keeping the charges together.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>(though, there are few where he has to become unpinned and let one go, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>just to spare the Robinsons, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>just to spare Doctor Smith, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>and himself; </em>
</p><p>
  <em>from a tragedy of a mutant creature eating them alive, </em>
</p><p>
  <em>or being mercy killed by Will)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>In this world,</p><p>it tries to imitate the source of the shadows.</p><p>to no avail,</p><p>they die.</p><p> </p><p>They return to old habits</p><p>
  <em>---in the edgy, the dark, the bitter cold of the anti-matter world--</em>
</p><p>to form new ones,</p><p>the rest die in predictable ways;</p><p>running away to hang out with young alien boys, she faints, her blood is sucked dry by a alien bat,</p><p>storming off after a argument about searching for Penny and falling off a cliff by accident,</p><p>Don going out looking for Judy, becoming angrier, blaming Doctor Smith---</p><p> </p><p>Don is air locked by John once nearly trying to be rid of Doctor Smith with Will,</p><p>John perishes in easily avoidable tragedy if he had just <em>listened</em> to his son,</p><p>Maureen is poisoned by a plant while tending to the plants, she goes to sleep, she doesn't wake up.</p><p>Blarp and Blarp Junior are released into the wild <em>(they flourish; Will cries, Smith hugs him)<br/>
</em></p><p> </p><p>Smith and Will go into cryostasis.</p><p>A nuclear power source keeping the Jupiter 2 running for the foreseeable future for the continued flight,</p><p>A cure that stripped Smith of his spider half from a alternate Alpha Prime leaves him human and so easy to die.</p><p>It's death for them seeing that they won't reach Alpha Prime A for millions of years.</p><p> </p><p>Robot remains,</p><p>he waits,</p><p>he patrols,</p><p>he guards,</p><p>and waits all that time to wake them up and celebrate a bitter yet hollow victory.</p><p>
  <em>(they get there and reunite with civilization)</em>
</p><p> </p><p>The pro-matter;</p><p>wholesome, hopeful, sincere, optimistic.</p><p>They walk with victory, safety, assurance, comfort, and belonging.</p><p> </p><p>The anti-matter;</p><p>Their ink is woe, their pain is uncomfortable, their fates easy to see.</p><p>Wrapped in stupidity, the shadow of Death, vines of darkness wrapped around each and every one of them.</p><p> </p><p>All of whom surrounded by the tsunami</p><p>which is above them of the pitch black, </p><p>which is waiting to claim the Robinsons---</p><p>---and drown them in their own inaccuracies,</p><p>Leaving what was relatively already common when away from the family in both worlds;</p><p>just Will, Doctor Smith, and Robot.</p><p> </p><p>The tsunami grows,</p><p>and grows,</p><p>and grows above them,</p><p>waiting to make a descent</p><p>in the massive wave on the Robinsons in the anti-matter reality.</p><p> </p><p>There are many versions where in the anti-matter world;</p><p>
  <em>---the most ideal versions there ever was --</em>
</p><p>where they are themselves, </p><p>Nicely flawed,</p><p>well rounded,</p><p>and not giving up to space.</p><p> </p><p>they fight, fight, and fight for each other,</p><p>listen, believe, aid, comfort, and rescue,</p><p>clinging on to each other as all they had,</p><p>their only line of defense when Robot wasn't there was each other,</p><p>and their saboteur, their terrorist, reluctant stowaway, their traitor, their spy always stepped up to the plate when called for.</p><p><em>(most of the time in different dark realities, they don't find out that Smith hacked into Robot until years late</em>r)</p><p>Someone . . . they eventually found calling friend, annoyance, family member, and crew member</p><p>words that felt natural instead of wrong, disturbing, horrible.</p><p> </p><p>It takes a quite awhile,</p><p>For Don's utter disgust, hate, and resentment for Smith to go away,</p><p>but the rivalry, their reluctant and uneasy alliance, and resistance against the other doesn't go away completely at all,</p><p>it's still a surprise to call each other friends, but they never say it out loud to others, never admit that they feel like family,</p><p>it's a tragedy that neither man cannot find the words to say these things.</p><p>(They make it to Alpha Prime A, despite not saying these words, just a few years after getting lost)</p><p> </p><p>The woe, the darkness, the bleakness echoes on after civilization enters their worlds,</p><p>the consequences of Smith's actions,</p><p>the uncertainty, the fear, the heartbreak, the separation,</p><p>mere shadows that return to the night sky after what felt to be months (but really a few years) being on Alpha Prime A. </p><p> </p><p>dark and edgy,</p><p>loneliness and regret,</p><p>things that can get anyone killed--</p><p>If they are alone, without family, without friends.</p><p>But Doctor Smith isn't alone, far from Alpha Prime A, and being lost doesn't have the same sorrow as before,</p><p>They chart for Tauron for diplomatic immunity and begin their next best adventure getting to the next destination.</p><p> </p><p>Their hearts are bright, wrapped in vines of shadows, their souls from the pro-matter in their hearts,</p><p>being who they are,</p><p>the genuine article,</p><p>despite being in such dark realities.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em>--but so much better for one reason alone; these variations have their souls--</em>
</p><p> </p><p>they shine in comparison to the real articles,</p><p>just as much,</p><p>and stick together as a family with laughter at the end of the day.</p><p> </p>
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